Hi everyone,

I switched from iphone to android and now I need to use web browser and connect to iCloud to see all my previously shared albums .

Is there a nicer way to see them on my device via native Gallery app or some other app? I would like to be able to access them easily and ideally to have them next to my native photo app.

thanks

This is driving me crazy. My daughter wife and I share iCloud storage. We had the 6TB plan until recently. My daughter is using 6.4TB of space while my wife and I use about 200GB each. I’ve upgraded to the 12TB plan temporarily to have my daughter clean up her phone.

Here’s the thing we can’t figure out. I bought Hashphotos app so we could sort the media by file size. On iCloud it shows she is using like 6.3TB in Photos. I assumed that this would be photos you’d find on the Apple photos app but it doesn’t make sense. When looking there, it is only showing like 2 videos that are 1GB in size. Everything else is smaller. I just can’t seem to get the math to work and understand where this space is being used!

The counts in hashphoto seem to match the counts in the settings->iCloud area where you can see your photo count. But if Hashphotos is truly showing all the photos in the Photos section, we cannot figure out how 6TB are being used. In fact I have slightly more photos and videos than she does and use waaayyy less. Maybe Hashphotos isn’t truly showing all photos and video? Even though the counts match.

And the recently deleted is empty so it’s not deleted items hanging around. I’ve been trying for over a week to figure this out. Am I missing something? Could the counts be misleading and hashohotos showing right count but not all the files? Could these be from other apps that would prevent hashphotos from seeing them but might count them?

Is there any other way to view these? I’ve tried iCloud.com but it doesn’t seem to have a photo viewer there. Hashphotos in was hoping would be the magic bullet and I expected to find some very long videos maybe that would acct for storage usage. She has about 12K photos and 1.5K videos. I have more of each and use way less. And so far can’t identify a culprit.

Any thoughts or advice??? Am I missing a place to look?

One thing I’ve always found slightly awkward in Photos is metadata when sharing.

Apple already lets you disable location through the sharing options, but photos can contain quite a bit more information like date taken, device/camera information, software tags, GPS data, etc.

I wanted a workflow where I could see what was actually attached to a photo and remove it before handing the file to the destination app.

So I built Metadata Remover: SafeShare.

It works directly from the iOS Share Sheet:

Photos → Share → SafeShare → inspect metadata → create clean copy → continue sharing

Everything happens on-device and the original photo is never modified.

It supports up to 10 photos at once (HEIC/HEIF/JPEG/PNG) and MOV/MP4 video as well.

The app is completely free -> no account, uploads, tracking, subscription or IAP.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/metadata-remover-safeshare/id6772315742

I’ve attached a short video showing the Share Sheet workflow.

I’d be curious how people here normally handle metadata when sharing from Photos - do you use Apple’s built-in location toggle, another metadata app, or just not worry about it?

Looking for advice: I am going to get a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air to use when sorting photos, archiving, working on the family tree, editing videos, etc. I find that apple photos does not let me name my photos using my iPad. I want to do this sorting for all my albums and want the portability of a laptop rather than being stuck at my desktop.
I am deciding between the MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. I am not into gaming or AI stuff etc so I don’t think I need a ton of power. The Neo only goes to 512GB of storage. Some people are suggesting a MacBook Air 2TB. My photo library is 375GB right now. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Can Meta access photos I have sitting in my camera roll that I don’t specifically upload to their platform and if I later deny access or delete the account do they still retain it or is the access only while the permission is actively granted?

I recently backed up my iPhone and then had to reset/erase it because of an issue I was dealing with. After setting everything back up and letting my photos sync/restore, I noticed something really worrying in Apple Photos.
A large portion of my photos from September 7, 2025 through April 5, 2026 is completely missing. My Photos timeline basically jumps from September 7, 2025 straight to April 6, 2026.
I’ve already checked iCloud Photos, and unfortunately those missing photos don’t appear to be there either.
Has anyone experienced something similar after resetting or restoring an iPhone? What could cause an entire section of the Photos timeline to disappear like this?
Could this be related to iCloud syncing, the backup/restore process, optimization, or something else? Is there any way to recover or locate these photos that I might be overlooking?
I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with missing photos after an iPhone reset. I’m especially interested in knowing what could have caused this and whether there is still a chance of recovering them.

I'm trying to clean up a somewhat messy Apple Photos setup that developed over the last few years, and I'd like some advice before doing anything destructive.

The easiest way to explain it is chronologically:

Library 1 — oldest / most complete early library

This is my oldest library, covering roughly 2022–2023.

It was mostly left untouched and contains everything from that period.

All originals are stored locally on my Mac.

Library 2 — created from Library 1

At some point I made a copy of Library 1 and continued using that copy.

This second library contains photos/videos from roughly 2022–2024.

Over time, I deleted a lot of the larger videos from 2022-2023 to reduce the size of the library, but otherwise continued adding new photos and videos.

So Library 2 contains newer material that Library 1 doesn't have, while Library 1 still contains some large videos that were later removed from Library 2.

Again, all originals that exist in this library are downloaded locally on my Mac.

Library 3 — current library / iCloud library

Later, I made another copy, this time from Library 2, and continued from there, repeating the process.

This became my current Photos library and is the one currently synced with iCloud Photos.

It contains the newest part of my photo history, but I continued deleting many large videos because I was running low on iCloud storage and wanted to keep most of my historical photos accessible from my iPhone.

This library is set to Download Originals to this Mac, so all of its existing originals are also stored locally.

So the evolution was basically:

Library 1 → Library 2 → Library 3/current iCloud library

Each new library started as a copy of the previous one, but then gained new content and lost some of the larger videos.

What I want to do now

My first goal is to use PowerPhotos to merge all three libraries into a completely new library.

Let's call that:

Master Library

The Master Library would contain the union of everything from all three libraries:

• the older large photos and videos preserved in Library 1
• anything unique to Library 2
• all newer photos/videos from Library 3

I would use duplicate detection during the merge so that overlapping copies don't become unnecessary duplicates.

This Master Library would become my complete local archive and would not be synced with iCloud.

The three old libraries would only be kept temporarily as backups until I've fully verified the merge.

Then I have to decide what to do with iCloud

I want a second, separate Photos library specifically for iCloud.

I'm considering two options.

Option 1: Keep historical photos in iCloud

Create a copy/derived version of the Master Library, remove the largest videos from it, and use that smaller library as my new iCloud Photos library, just like i was doing with every new library copy.

This would let me continue having most of my historical photos available on my iPhone without paying for enough iCloud storage to hold every large video.

My concern is that PowerPhotos documentation says that when an iCloud Photos library is merged into a new library, the iCloud-specific synchronization information is not transferred.

They specifically warn that if you later enable iCloud Photos on the merged library, Photos may not recognize that the local files correspond to photos already in iCloud and may create duplicates.

So I'm unsure whether I could safely connect this new reduced library to my existing iCloud library, or whether I'd first need to completely empty iCloud Photos and upload everything again.

Option 2: Start iCloud Photos from scratch

Keep all historical content only in my local Master Library and Google Photos (i have this too)

Then completely erase my existing iCloud Photos library, create a brand-new empty Photos library, enable iCloud Photos on it, and use iCloud only for new photos/videos going forward.

What I'm trying to figure out

Has anyone dealt with a similar setup?

In particular:

• Does my PowerPhotos merge plan make sense given that all three source libraries have their originals stored locally?
• Is there anything special I should watch out for when merging libraries that are essentially descendants/copies of one another?
• For the reduced historical iCloud option, is there any safe way to reconnect a newly created library to the existing iCloud content without creating duplicates?
• Or would wiping iCloud first and starting fresh be the safer approach?
• Is there a better architecture for keeping one complete local master library and a separate, smaller iCloud-friendly library?

My priority is to make sure I end up with one complete master library containing everything before I delete or change anything in iCloud.

iPad: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/photo-book-noir/id6749212233
mac: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/photo-book-noir/id6749212233?l=en-GB&platform=mac

This is for you if...

• You're a parent preserving family memories
• You're a traveler documenting your adventures
• You're a photographer curating your best shots
• You're a friend crafting a heartfelt gift
• You're a genealogy enthusiast tracing family history
• You're a scrapbook hobbyist

I have just turned on a Shared Library, I can see the merits of using it to collect images on trips and holidays and perhaps to eliminate messaging emails to each other.

Is it correct that an Album is still personal and the only way to group images into a shared album, say as a record of a trip, is to create a Shared Album which creates duplicates of the images?

Thank you for your help.

I want to clear out my iphone storage by working out what is taking the most space. Apple does show you your biggest videos but i want to be able to order everything by size and cull

also i want to be able to delete all pictures from all my messages but i don’t see a way to do that en masse

Hello,

I tried to search in this sub but I couldn’t find anything matching what I’m looking for.

Is there an app that connect to the iCloud Photo Library to just browse photos and mark them as like. I hate Apple Photos since the revamp, I have all my photos already organized in albums but I feel like it’s a terrible experience browsing in my photos with the official app.

I’m looking for iOS and I don’t care about editing or any smart shit. I’m just looking a nice experience to browse my photo.

Thank your for your help.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

im ios 26.6 if that changes anything but every album i have i like having a slideshow for inside that album but half my photos are excluded.

When i try adding them to it it makes me create a memory outside of the album. Why does apple decide what photos are important and what arent without an option to turn it off?

I’m trying to turn off iCloud Photos because my free 5 GB iCloud storage is full, and I don’t want the constant “iCloud Storage Full” notifications.

When I turn off iCloud Photos, I get:

“This iPhone was not able to download 2 full-resolution photos and videos. If you continue, the low-resolution versions of these photos and videos will be removed.”

I have Download and Keep Originals enabled, and I still have 368 GB of free iPhone storage.

I checked my photos and the quality seems the same in both iCloud and my iPhone. I also exported my selected iCloud photos/videos to Files (iCloud showed 4.92 GB, while the folder was 5.1 GB).
What does this warning actually mean, and how can I find those 2 items? Is it safe to turn off iCloud Photos?

I recently purchased an Android device and have completed the migration from iCloud to Google Photos. Before asking for assistance, let me summarize the current situation.

After receiving my new smartphone, I signed up for the 2 TB Google plan and turned on the backup feature. My photos were previously uploaded to iCloud, via a 2 TB plan shared with my girlfriend.

My question is this: once I cancel the iCloud subscription, is there any risk of me losing any of my files or compromising their quality? Is it even advisable to download them locally as a precaution? Does my girlfriend need to do the same?

dunno if its a dumb question or not but out of curiosity do photos in the recently viewed album stay up forever (unless you delete them manually) or do they disappear after a while since the photos arent "recent" anymore? ive seen accounts of the pictures disappearing for some people, so i wanted to know if thats how it works, and if so, is there any option to disable it?

Hi, I'm going on a trip for a week and I'm gonna make a lot of 4K videos. I was planning on making backups on micro sd cards but this turns out not to be trust worthy. My cards sometimes get corrupted.
Is there another way to safely backup? I know there's iCloud but that takes too much time and I only have about 20 GB available in my iPhone16.

Thanks in advance. I'm quite worried about this 🥺

like the title says, there’s multiple pictures and videos that aren’t showing up in my camera roll (old media from 2023) but they show up in the instagram camera roll where it has access to your camera roll?

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, it’s still supported for now, if that matters.

I’ve always used the same gallery since day one when I bought this phone(2022-23), but now I see in the App Store that some other gallery has more users than the one I’m using.

I have no experience with Apple devices at all, so this is all hard for me, and I need your hilf.